Determinants of Adoption of New Agricultural Technologies by Cooperative Farmers in Nigeria

Globally, advanced technologies are invented or discovered for the improvement of farming activities. In Nigeria, such technologies are gradually being available from research institutes and imported technologies. The low outputs of farms suggest that these technologies seem not to be highly adopted in Nigeria and the factors that determine the adoption of these technologies are yet to be explored. The study examined the socio-economic and institutional determinants of the adoption of new agricultural technologies by cooperative farmers in Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select three hundred and twenty farmers (160 individual farmers and 160 co-operative farmers), statistically derived using the Taro Yamane formula. The data used for this study were sourced from primary data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were deployed in the analysis of data. Findings revealed that sex, marital status, farm size and annual farm income socio-economic are the socioeconomic factors affecting the adoption of new agricultural technologies while the frequency of contact with extension agents is the key institutional factor affecting the adoption of agricultural technologies. Recommendations made include that extension services should be improved by the Agricultural Development Programme. There should be at least two extension agents to each community who should visit the farms regularly and expose the farmers to the latest agricultural technologies through Small Plots Adoption Trials (SPATS) and On-Farm Adaptive Research. The extension service workers in ADP should enjoin individual farmers to form effective groups (Co-operative Societies) for easy diffusion of the agricultural technological innovations.